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Education, policy, and the future; these are all facets which this white paper aims to address by illustrating a lifestyle that is not so far off. The reader of this paper will better understand the possibilities of where education can go, understand what technologies are already out there to support those directions, and what schools and corporations are already doing to capitalize on the possibilities offered to this sector. Furthermore, the reader should better understand that the changes that need to be made to make way for this type of education are not just technological, but behavioral and political, as the landscape of education could change drastically.

To help explain what benefits lie ahead for a culture that adapts, the paper goes into what has already been proven through the use of virtual learning techniques and the effects that it can have on society. For example, it has been proven that while students only retain 10% of what they read, they retain 90% of what they do, even if it is a simulation. This means that schools, from Kindergarten to higher education, can use these simulations to increase the learning ability of their students. Along with the many opportunities offered to the education sector, technology poses as a huge enabler for new forms of innovation in the corporate world which can have much longer lasting and impactful effects on society.

At the end of the day, this paper shows that the speed at which education through this medium advances is the result of how open policy makers and everyday citizens are to the changes being made. This paper should serve as a starting point for anyone making a decision on whether or not to try these new methods and technologies.

Good morning baby, my wife will say. Already woken up by Iris, our virtual personal assistant, she is shaking me and telling me to get moving as today is my big day. I stretch and hop out of bed to find that she has already picked out my favorite suit along with my favorite shirt and tie (though I believe Iris helped her). I begin to get dressed in the bathroom while watching the morning news and looking at my calendar built into the mirror. I notice that for the first time in what feels like forever, my calendar is clear. I am accepting my award today for my work in founding the most innovative company of the year.

I arrive downstairs and Iris is just finishing printing my breakfast (yes I said printing). The food is completely fresh and warm as I begin to practice my speech by reading it on the projected teleprompter and listening to myself in the recording. My wife sits at the other end of the table making fun of me, as usual… It was only 10 years ago that I graduated Bucknell, and 5 years ago that I started my company. Using the advancements in technology, we found a way to measure all types of inputs and develop models which all types of companies are using to figure out what their customers want and need. We have also managed to use this mass amount of data to find new trends in the markets, and to find ways to offer new opportunities to the developing world.

Proud of myself (I’m allowing myself to have a bit of hubris today), I wait for my mom and dad to arrive at my house. Together, the four of us step into our Google driverless car and sit around the table drinking coffee and talking about the news as the car brings us to our destination. The drive, which in years past would have taken nearly an hour to complete, took a mere fifteen minutes. We pulled up in front of the hall where I would receive my award.

Afterwards, we left to go celebrate 2023 style. Our car lifted off of the ground and we entered the skynet headed from New York to Dubai to take a week of vacation and relax together. Iris was capable of managing the main aspects of the business for the next week and had strict instructions to only interrupt us if there was an emergency. The beauty of the future is that we only need to worry about the important things. The technology will handle the rest.

There has been a huge divide growing over the past decade amongst the common American and their political beliefs and how this country should be run. This divide ranges from people believing that the government should not hold a single place in this country to believing that they should have a say in almost everything that the common citizen does. I believe that the real question should not be how much influence the government has, or which ideology should be the “winner.” Rather, I believe that this country should find a common understanding, come back to the middle, and work out our problems together.

It is because of this that I propose a day of walk around engagement. What I mean is that I believe people should be free, once a year, to take time and go meet with someone from a completely different ideology from themselves and get to know what it is that they actually do. While it might not be the “big fix,” I believe that it would allow people to think from a much broader perspective which would cut through the bureaucratic divide which has frozen the progress of this country. I would love to know what other people think about this idea so keep the comments coming!!

It is no secret that sex is a popular topic in American culture. Sex, as it is necessary for our race’s survival, has pervaded TV, politics, our schools, our churches, our work places, pillow talk and so much more. Besides being necessary for survival sex, especially since the inception of birth control, is a fun activity which people can engage in without having to spend money on (insert pun here) and is the basis for many of our relationships throughout our lives whether we are engaged with someone or are talking about the experience and how “fun” it is with others. However, sex is not just about fun and games and often carries many social stigmas with it. If you are a single man you are expected to have as many partners as you can muster and if you are married or taken you are expected to share yourself only with your partner. For women, they are “expected” to have fewer partners and only open up to those men who they are in relationships with. Any breaking away from these norms generally creates a social fallout, whether it means your friend group makes fun of you or shuns you depending on the crime. These social no no’s can generally be managed and often only affect the immediate party, that is unless your actions and breaking these norms generates national attention.

Enter one of the perpetrators in chiefs. One of the most famous sex scandals in my lifetime was between President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. While in office, Bill had an affair with Monica which eventually came out and became the center of attention in American media. For the purposes of this paper, I am not worried about the ethics of what Clinton did, nor what words were exchanged between Hilary and him. What I am concerned about is whether or not this particular incident had any affect at all on the President’s ability to lead the free world. In order to paint a better picture of what happened I will explore the event as if through the memoirs of the president himself.

March 1997:

It was the middle of March when I met with Monica for the last time. She and I had previously met on eight other occasions and each time had been under the greatest veil of secrecy. I was taken aback by her youthfulness and her ambition, only wanting to divulge in her because of the sensation that it provided. I, who had just about everything a man could dream of, wanted the forbidden fruit, and I got it. When we met, however, we agreed that this would be for the last time. We knew that we could not go on forever wishing that people would never find out. I knew I would miss these late night meetups but it was time to put a stop to them.

Subsequently, Monica had confided in her friend Linda Tripp, who later secretly recorded their conversations in order to gain material to prove that Monica was purging herself in another case. These recordings were delivered to the council of the opposing council and were later used to expose the Clinton and Lewinsky affair.

January 17, 1998

When I first heard the news I could not believe that someone, somehow, found out that I had an affair with Monica. I was worried, and not just for myself. I knew that Hilary would be furious and that I would have to speak with her, I was worried for Chelsea as I know she would have to deal with the ridicule at school, and I was worried for the American people who had placed their faith and trust in me not just to run their country but to be a good shining example for others to follow. How can I make sure that my reputation is not destroyed?

After the scandal broke out, Clinton and Lewinsky denied their physical relationship. Clinton stood by his wife, in a national broadcast only days later, to tell the American people that “(He) did not have sexual relations with that woman, Monica Lewinsky.”

On August 17, 1998, after Monica was promised immunity from obstructing justice, Clinton finally came forward and announced to the public in a taped grand jury hearing that he had had an “improper physical relationship” with Monica. The public was in disarray and people felt as though Clinton had lied to them. His public opinion ratings fell far from their highs and created what some political analysts called “Clinton fatigue.” While 57% of voters approved of Clinton’s job performance, only 36% had a favorable opinion of Clinton as a person and other political figures began to view Clinton as politically toxic.[1]

It becomes interesting, then, to use Clinton as a case to see whether or not these indiscretions should only be kept in the bedrooms of those involved or if they actually have a place in society at large. Using the different moral frameworks that we have discussed in class, this paper aims to dissect Clinton’s actions through the utilitarian perspective, meaning that it does not matter if there are any moral or immoral problems with what happened but whether or not Clinton’s actions affected his ability to lead.

In the early years of the United States it was not hard to keep your public life separate from your private life. The main mode of communication was either face to face or by mail, which could take weeks to reach its intended recipient. Politicians of the time could rely on their politics and stated beliefs alone to garner votes and people’s support, not worrying about their charisma. Today however, with the advent of radio, TV, cell phones, Facebook, and Twitter, Americans are exposed to every aspect of the people they are voting into office.

“Any man familiar with public life realizes the foul gossip which ripples just under the surface about almost every public man, and especially about every president.”

How much did Clinton’s actions with Monica actually affect his ability to act as the president of the United States? Going into the 2000 election Clinton’s reputation was still tainted by his actions. Al Gore, Clinton’s vice president, who was running for the same office as his boss ended up making a decision not to include Clinton in his campaign. Clinton argued that if he had gone on the road in Arkansas and New Hampshire, he would have been able to help garner the votes that Gore needed to be elected president, regardless of what happened in the Florida race. Gore’s decision came because of the overwhelming consensus of the public’s opinion about Clinton. Clinton’s ability to lead and to engage with the people had been called into question.

Clinton’s motives were also called into question regarding a missile attack which he authorized just days after the scandal broke. Some political correspondents thought that the attack was not because Clinton felt the attack was the right move but rather to divert the public’s eye by changing the news cycle. Unfortunately only 16% of hard news cycles switched completely and only paid attention to the attacks.

In Trevino and Nelson’s Managing Business Ethics, they state that: “a utilitarian would approach an ethical dilemma by identifying the alternative actions and their consequences (harms and/or benefits) for all stakeholders.” In retrospect, it seems as though Clinton’s power was diminished through his relations with Ms. Lewinsky. He was not able to help Al Gore in obtaining office and was seen by the American people as a cheat and someone who they could no longer trust. Through the utilitarian perspective, Clinton would have been considered a failure as his actions negated his ability to make a difference, to inspire change, and ultimately carry out his elected position as the president. As the American people were Clinton’s stakeholders, Clinton should have gone down another path when making the decision to have an affair in office. Clearly, for the American people, the better alternative to Clinton’s actions would have been to not make the decision and, also as important, be forthcoming when the actual allegations were brought forward as to maintain the trust of the American people and to keep the dignity of the office of the president.

Clinton has done many different things well. He was one of the few presidents in history to have a surplus for three years of his presidency and to create change for many political issues that have affected the citizens of the US for many years on end. He still could have been better. Clinton could have better served the American people at the end of his presidency, and served his party in the 2000 election, just by making better decisions in his personal life. Clearly, with the change in the way we consume hard and soft media, politicians and those who hold a position of power need to pay more attention to how they carry themselves. Keep the sex behind closed doors.

I won’t go as far as blacking out the entire world and seeing what type of person rises up to take control. I will however, using the powers given to me by this Business, Government, & Society class, turn off all phone and internet communications, forever. Imagine. Continue reading →

Last week I attended a sustainability workshop discussing the different sustainability courses both at Bucknell and that will be offered in the future at Bucknell. The professors were asked questions about the course ranging from their true functionality and what they aim to achieve by offering the courses to students. They were even able to justify many of the different offerings by showing the changes in corporate culture and the changes happening in the climate which we can see today.

What interested me the most was that it took this long for something of this nature to happen at Bucknell. Sustainability, while it may not always have been called that, has been a topic of discussion for quite some time now. It shows up in discussion where others wonder if an event or something we do can continue to go on. What needs to continue to change, though, is the way in which we think. We have applied sustainable thought to everyday things, such as relationships, jobs, etc, to see whether or not these types of things can be maintained and thrive on their own. That same thought needs to go further and people need to think whether a business process of a daily routine can continue to happen and what the side effects are. It is in the idea of changing thought that I believe a sustainability curriculum can have a positive effect on society. I am glad that Bucknell has taken this initiative.